Why Britain can’t cope without fibre-for-all
BT’s former chief technologist, Dr Peter Cochrane OBE, makes the case for a genuine fibre rollout
BT’s former CTO, Dr Peter Cochrane OBE, makes the case for a genuine fibre rollout.
With Britain still in the midst of a “fibre rollout” – most of which isn’t fibre anyway – I’ve been looking for examples of countries that are getting it right. In fact, I’ve had to travel to the other side of the world, to New Zealand, where I’ve discovered a visionary policy of putting fibre first so that the country is ready for the future and breaking down the digital divide.
Fibre in New Zealand is providing first-class broadband and mobile coverage all around the country via the Ultra-Fast Broadband and Rural Broadband Initiative programmes. I discovered a simple, consistent policy of replacing fibre-to-thenode (FTTN), the equivalent of the fibre-to-the-cabinet BT is deploying today, with fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to three-quarters of the population. The network is open to everyone, and FTTN is being driven deep into rural areas with a view to FTTP in the future. The fibre is then used to enable complementary mobile infill coverage in rural areas along the way.
The economic opportunity and advantage being afforded to cities, towns, communities and individuals by these networks cannot be overstated. New Zealand seems to be one of the few countries around the world that really “gets it” – without fibre, you’ll be left behind. Fibre is the future
To understand how important this all is for New Zealand, it’s necessary to appreciate some of the history and the current world position. The progress of personal computing, the internet and mobility has been stellar. The global reach has touched every aspect of human life and
“MANY PEOPLE ARE DISADVANTAGED BY EXCLUSION FROM SERVICES AND WORLD MARKETS – WE NEED EVERYONE TO BE CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER”
society, with new technologies made possible, industries created, and services that have shrunk the planet. Optical fibres also make it possible to connect major countries, cities and towns across the world. But for most of the planet, there it stopped. FTTP is progressing at a snail’s pace, despite a visible and increasing demand. Networks across most of the Western world are unable to meet demand or the service levels needed.
An almost pathological love of copper and fear of fibre appears to have gripped the telco industry from about 1990 onwards. National FTTP programmes started in the late 1980s were abandoned in the early 1990s, and the long and expensive trek to squeeze more bandwidth out of copper cables and congested wireless waves got underway. The 2, 2.5, 3 and 4G standards promised a fixed mobile utopia just over the horizon – just one more step, and then we won’t need all this fibre – but they never delivered!
This has led to a necessary fixation on the “peak promise” rather than the sustained throughput, which is the key measure we should look at, with latency close behind. None of these technologies delivered on their promise and, as a result, the majority of people currently suffer congestion and delay. Many are disadvantaged by exclusion from services and world markets , forgetting the key philosophy behind network effects – we need everyone with great connectivity and connected to each other.
Of course, there are exceptions. Japan and Korea, for example, went ahead with fibre-rich networks complemented by leading-edge mobile technologies from the 1990s onwards. In the decade that followed, Scandinavia and some parts of Europe and the USA saw a few incumbents, private companies and community networks beginning to roll out FTTP. Today, the realisation is dawning that copper and mobile networks will never fully deliver. FTTP with bandwidths of 1Gbit/sec both ways is now assumed to be a base requirement to support